Things to do in London this weekend (23-24 May)

Could the West End transfer of Ava Pickett’s 1536 really live up to all the hype? The answer, thankfully, is: yes, and then some. Co-produced with Margot Robbie’s production company, director Lyndsey Turner has crafted a heady, sensory experience, one that is jolted forward by faultless performances from the female leads. The 110-minute one-act run time might raise eyebrows, yet the show never loses pace, and refuses to overcook things either. 1536 is a once-in-a-blue-moon theatrical experience. I laughed. I cried. I probably could have screamed too. Pickett’s play is a tour de force, and 1536 one of those theatrical moments that stays with you for a very long time.

Every spring, west London hosts the Glastonbury of the gardening calendar. Across five days, hundreds of world-class growers and garden designers descend on Chelsea’s Royal Hospital Grounds to take part in the floral extravaganza that is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. More than 400 exhibits show off the green-fingered talent of the world’s finest landscapers and horticulturalists, and shine a spotlight on charities such as Parkinson’s UK, the Trussell Trust and Asthma + Lung UK. Then, of course, there’s the much anticipated (and rather frantic) plant sell-off on the final day of the event when exhibitors put their display plants up for bargain prices. 

If you’ll always carry a torch for your teenage celeb crush, then this one’s for you. From the internet’s impact on beauty trends to all things cute and cuddly, Somerset House has a history of delving into contemporary pop cultural trends with its exhibition programming, and it continues in a similar vein with its spring 2026 exhibition. In Holy Pop! Somerset House will explore the power of fandom and the world of modern shrines. Through art, memorabilia, letters, photographs, and interactive installations, the pay what you can exhibition will uncover the rituals of idolisation, showing how fandom shapes identity, values, and community. 

All of London’s hottest and hippest people will head to Peckham Rye Park for one of London’s best electronic music bonanzas in May. Friday tends to lean towards the bassier side of things. In 2026 it will see Benji B take over with Deviation. Freshly announced acts include CASISDEAD, Giggs and Novelist. Peach will debut her new Dreamland project on Saturday with a takeover of the Pleasuredome. She’ll be joined on the line-up by Saoirse, Call Super, Prosumer, Job Jobse and Steffi x Virginia. Sunday will go hard on the disco and house, with Todd Terje, Seth Troxler and Lil’ Louis leading the charge, alongside a rare b2b2b from Hunee, Palms Trax and Antal. 

The first major European exhibition of James McNeil Whistler’s work in 30 years arrives at Tate Britain in 2026. Known as a truly global artist, The Victorian oil painter re-wrote many of the rules of art, and was an early adopter of ’art for art’s sake’. The retrospective brings together the artist’s world-famous paintings such as ‘Whistler’s Mother’ (Mr Bean fans will recognise this one, IYKYK) alongside rarely, or never seen, works. It includes exquisite portraits, drawings, prints, and designs, from as early as his teens in St Petersburg to the enigmatic late self-portraits. 

A sprawling, Neoclassical statement piece, The Ned now contains 10 restaurants and bars and a 250-room hotel. But, the finest of The Ned’s bevvy of restaurants is Lutyens Grill, named after the building’s architect Edwin Lutyens. It’s tucked away in the snug, formal space that was once the bank manager’s personal office. A small red rope will be lifted and a sturdy door will slyly roll open to reveal a low-lit, glossy wood-panelled space. The menu is turbo traditional. There are creamy shrimp cocktails and oyster platters to start. A heavy board displaying the most succulent of steaks is then brought to the table to help you decide on your meaty main course. Sides are super luxe. Mac n cheese isn’t just mac n cheese, it’s lobster mac n cheese. If it’s indulgence you’re after, then Lutyens Grill more than fits the (considerable) bill. 

Krapp’s Last Tape is one of those formally groundbreaking, emotionally devastating Samuel Beckett plays that is nonetheless so locked into being staged the same way every time – thanks to notoriously rigid Beckett estate – that it can be tricky to comment on a new production. Even if it is one that’s directed by, stars and is designed by Gary Oldman. He is, to be clear, bloody good. Oldman’s Krapp is eccentric but not as clownish a figure as sometimes depicted: the famous business with (spoiler alert) his consumption of two bananas at the start is funny but also restrained and pitiful, an elderly man munching a snack contemplatively, savouring it because it seems he has so little else going on. It’s a play about aging and regret. It’s a bold and profoundly unnerving final stroke and if you’re lucky enough to have to bagged a ticket to this largely sold out run – you can still get standing and Monday tickets – Oldman’s haunting return is excellent. 

On its surface, this minuscule movie is about a famously difficult painter, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), and the young restorer, Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), attempting to exploit his dotage. But this is a Soderbergh joint, with a prickly script written by his frequent collaborator Ed Solomon (Mosaic). So clearly, there’s more to the story than the initial set-up, in which Julian is eking out his final years in resentful boredom until Lori shows up as his inspiring new assistant. Not many filmmakers have the clout to both make and release an intellectual two-hander about the nature of art and accomplishment. And this is a movie that requires generosity even as it rewards patience. It’s a tiny, talky experiment that’s totally authentic. 

Foodies Festival is far more than little cheese samples and Q&A sessions. The touring event, which is back in London’s Syon Park this spring, is one of the UK’s largest food and drink fests and goes ham with its progreamme. This year, you can you watch stars of Masterchef and Bake Off do what they do best, gorge on street food from around the world, give it your all in a chilli-eating contest, try pro cooking techniques for yourself, get a facial and be serenaded by the likes of Scouting For Girls, Boyzlife and Gareth Gates, all in one place. 

London Rivers Week has been committed to celebrating and restoring London’s rivers for 10 years now. In that decade, the need to appreciate our city’s waterways has only grown. The theme of the charity event this year is ‘Know Your Local River’, encouraging Londoners to connect with and take pride in the river nearest to them. To help you dp that, there’ll be guided walks, exhibitions, volunteer sessions, lectures, workshops, clean-ups and talks going on in every corner of the capital. 

The Big Bahooey is billed as a festival of all-out tomfoolery. Acoss three days, the grounds of Hampton Court Palace will be animated with ridiculous slapstick shows, bizarro circus acts, high-energy live music and workshops teaching kids the tricks of the circus trade. More specifically, gear up for stuff like acrobatic archery, traditional Ghanian music, a violinist playing while in flight and a falconry display. 

The Natural History Museum’s temporary 2026 exhibition offers a sop to the dinosaur-loving masses without technically being about dinosaurs, focussing instead on the weird, wonderful and terrifying world of prehistoric sea monsters. Think pliosaurs, think ichthyosaurs, think think mosasaurs – whose profile shot right up after being featured as the ultimate reptillian killer in Jurassic World. We’re not quite clear what this show will involve specifically at this stage, but the NHM’s temporary exhibitions are always a delight, far more spacious and with far more technologically advanced interactive exhibits than its delightful but creaky dinosaur room. 

Are you a budding podder? Have you already got your own podcast on the go? Or do you just love to listen to the deluge that’s already out there? Whichever of those three apply, the Podcast Show is for you. The show focuses more on the business of podcasting than the podcasts themselves but is by no means a dry industry event. It brings together some of the biggest players in the business. Some of your favourite hosts – like Gary Linekar, Jamie Laing, Andy Murray of ‘No Such Thing As Fish’, Sophia and Cinzia of ‘The Girls Bathroom’ and Elizabeth Day of ‘How to Fail’ – will be there alongside a whole load of people who turn the cogs behind the scenes. 

This hugely enjoyable new Sherlock Holmes adventure from playwright Joel Horwood gives you all you could possibly want from The Great Detective: the catchphrases, the wild connect-the-dots genius, the Victoriana, the post-Cumberbatch notion that the guy is a bit of an autistic weirdo but cranked up to 10 and given a flamboyant drug habit. It’s also directed marvellously by Sean Holmes, who turns in a meaty, satisfying romp that has plenty of enjoyably weird grit in its wheels. For the most part, the writing is sharp, the leads are superb, and Holmes’ direction gives the whole thing an engaging extra layer of weirdness. It’s a rare play of which I can confidently say that I’d love to see a sequel.

Welcome to the snowbound flatlands of Normal, Minnesota. Population 1,890. Bob Odenkirk is caretaker sheriff Ulysses Richardson, shipped into Normal after the previous lawman perished in a whiteout. Normal is a film of two halves. The first, a smalltown mystery populated with eccentric western stock: Lena Headey’s grungy barfly, Billy MacLellan’s doofus deputy, Henry Winkler’s dodgy mayor, face like a haunted flannel. And the second? The pneumatic chakka-chak of gunfire is absolutely relentless. Exploding cop cars. Exploding heads. Ninety minute runtime. No CG. But Normal goes about its carnage with such sincerity, it’s impossible to resist. 

After 430 or so years, it’s fairly apparent that we as a species are not going to get tired of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. And Emily Lim’s new take still feels like a breath of fresh air. Lim’s USP is creating massive-scale participatory public theatre works. This isn’t quite that, but it uses the Globe’s large, lairy crowd to maximum impact for a production that cheerily deviates repeatedly from Shakespeare’s exact text in a joyous, almost non-stop welter of audience interaction. The embellishments run from start to finish, with a lengthy and enjoyable pre-show that involves roping audience members into ‘auditions’ for the Mechanicals. It’s a good vibes only Dream. By the time it all ends in a virtual apocalypse of bubbles it’s safe to say that you will have been charmed.

After four decades of underuse, the Barbican has decided its time to resurrect its grand sculpture court which sits above the Concert Hall and is framed by the curve of Frobisher Crescent. To kick things off, the court will host a major public artwork by Colombian sculptor Delcy Morelos. Inspired by ancestral Andean cosmovisions, and drawing on minimalism and abstraction, Morelos’ installations are hand built from clay, soil, hay and plant seed. By embedding the loam with spices, including cinnamon and cloves, Morelos transforms her sculptures into multi-sensory environments.  

The Southbank’s graffitied skate mecca is about as iconic as skate parks get. This spring, the Southbank Centre is celebrating 50 years of the concrete space beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall that was first adopted by skaters in 1976. To tell the story of the legendary park, the Southbank centre has collaborated with the skate community to identify key events, figures and moments that have shaped the space, bringing all the stories together in one mega exhibition. Skate 50 will comprise photographs, films, sound art and animations, featuring contributions from Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee, Lev Tanju, Jack Brooks, the Keep Rolling Project, Beatrice Dillon and Sofia Negri. 

Virginia Woolf’s towering 1931 novel The Waves, a haunting modernist blend of poetry and novel that sketches out the lives of six – or perhaps seven – friends, is not a simple read. But it goes down surprisingly smoothly in this stage adaptation by Flora Wilson Brown. Julia Levai’s deft, efficient production and a superb cast inject warmth and feeling into Woolf’s lengthy poetic soliloquies. We get plenty of Woolf’s original poetry, but Brown is fearless about chopping and changing, adding lashings of dialogue and rearranging things to make the autobiographical character of Rhoda the effective main narrator. It’s a clever move, and it flows smoothly, poignantly mapping out six people’s lives from childhood innocence to middle age.

Dave Harris’ Tender is a drama about how hard it is to be a man. But don’t worry, you can put the pepper spray away: we are far away from incel territory here. The US playwright’s latest, directed by Matthew Xia, speaks to the sheer scope of Harris’ imagination, and Xia’s ability to articulate his out-there ideas on a modest budget. The setting is a New Jersey strip club in which the female clientele and the male strippers are allowed to engage in actual sex acts due to a convoluted legal loophole. But the men are a mess. It’s a story about the pressure of being a man as a sexual being; not in a woe-is-me way but as in ‘these are pressures on men that aren’t often discussed’.

Playwright David Hare collaborates again with Ralph Fiennes in this big portrait ofDame Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving, two of the most important actors who ever lived, which also serves as a history of and an endearing paean to theatre. Grace Pervades is the story of their time on stage, a winking exploration of traditionalism and populism in theatre. There are clipped vowels and lavish costumes – Fiennes looks great in tights and a brocade cape – and it all looks rather lovely. It’s all good fun, a cheeky, self-referential and sometimes self-critical play. It’s an entertaining night both at the theatre and of the theatre.

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined beyond belief, through cutting-edge technology. Situated in Marble Arch, Frameless plays host to four unique galleries with hypnotic visuals and a dazzling score. Enjoy 90 minutes of surreal artwork from Bosch, Dalí and more for just £23.60!

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This 1968 play by the great dramatist of the fractured American Dream, Arthur Miller, is compelling in its uncompromising cynicism, originally written as a rebuke to how Miller perceived the abstract, consequence-free tone of 1960s theatre. New York cop Victor (Elliot Cowan) has returned with his wife, Esther (Faye Castelow), to his long-dead father’s home before it’s demolished, re-opening old wounds. A heavyweight creative team makes the weight of this past almost tangible and it’s thrilling to see talented actors really knock chunks out of each other, with the director excavating every ounce of pain from their performances. There’s some seriously meaty material here about how we take ownership of our lives when value is relative.

Artist Sian Fan’s new multidisciplinary installation at Somerset House explores how magic and mysticism manifests in our consumer-driven world. From TikTok tarot readings, to Pokémon cards, Chinese fortune knots and video game talismans, Fan’s references range from pop culture to the historical. She draws on the myths, folklore, and storytelling traditions found in contemporary gaming and popular culture, Fan highlights how spirituality persists in these ultra-modern spaces. 

Broadwick Soho arrived with serious flair in 2023 and has been serving up a hit of West End glamour, that feels both indulgent and effortlessly cool ever since. Tucked inside the hotel, Dear Jackie is its seductive Italian dining room, all Murano glow, red silk walls and plush booths that could tell a few stories. The menu leans into refined Italian comfort with superior pasta and reimagined classics, making it an ideal spot to settle in for dinner.

With this exclusive Time Out offer, you can sink into Soho’s newest slice of dolce vita decadence for less with a three courses set meun and a glass of Champagne (worth £22). The perfect pre-theatre treat or the start of a night that might run on far longer than planned.

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Saltburn and Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike plays Jess Parks, a pioneering feminist judge, in Suzie Miller's three-hand play that feels more like a 100-minute monologue. Like its companion legal drama Prima Facie, which was a massive hit starring Jodie Comer, Inter Alia is a spectacularly demanding showcase for a female star, and Pike delivers the goods with stadium-level charisma, intelligence and flair. Miller’s play is based on interviews with female judges who juggle demanding careers with caring responsibilities and social lives: ‘inter alia’ means ‘among other things’. Punchy, thought-provoking drama, it has brought Jess and real women like her into the limelight.

A landmark exhibition exploring how Black British music has shaped culture in Britain and beyond. Items on display will include Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, looks worn by Little Simz and newly acquired photography by Dennis Morris and Jennie Baptiste. The exhibition’s opening will also feature a sound experience by Sennheiser, and will mark the launch of a the inaugural edition of a new festival that will take place annually each spring, bringing together the East Bank’s neighbouring cultural institutions, which include the London College of Fashion, the BBC Music Studios, Sadler’s Wells East and UCL East.

Joo Young Won used to be head chef at the Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows, his new restaurant, Calong, is cosy and simple, with food made for sharing. Chef Joo was raised in South Korea, but began his cookery career in the UK, and for a long time focused on French technique. It shows. Calong sees him cooking dishes inspired by his native cuisine in a masterful light-touch fusion fashion. A warm pumpkin and crisp pear salad is delicately dressed with gochujang, cured Chalkstream trout with perfectly tart sesame and plum soy, the fried chicken is crunchy yet silky, and a BBQ onglet is sweet and tender with a bulgogi jus. It’s one of the most exciting restaurants Stoke Newington has to offer.